As a generalization, typical static mixers include fluid redirecting tabs, vanes, baffles, or the like, that are arranged in a fluid conduit and that are typically operable to divide, subdivide, separate adjacent subdivided flows, and then recombine the subdivided flows into a "shuffled" whole, as the fluid passes through that conduit.
In a departure from that more typical approach, U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,000 discloses a tab arrangement in a fluid conduit that has lower fluid back pressures than are associated with the more typical approach to more typical static mixer designs. In particular, this patented tab arrangement operates by creating radial vortex flow patterns that are generally transverse to the longitudinal flow through the fluid conduit in which these tabs are mounted. This results in a plurality of cross-stream mixing flows that are transverse to the longitudinal flow of the fluid along the length of the conduit. This approach is disclosed as an enhancement over the kind of mixing that would be expected to occur naturally in a conduit under turbulent fluid flow conditions.